The present invention relates to signal timing, and more particularly to the timing of related audio and video signals with coincidental markers where the two signals travel over different transmission paths.
A television signal has both video and audio components that are related in time. If the two components get out of sync, the familiar "lip sync" problem can occur where events occur in the video portion of a television scene either before or after the corresponding sound. This problem can be caused just because the video and audio components are processed differently. For example the video may be delayed more than the audio with a video frame synchronizer that synchronizes the video to a reference timing signal that is used throughout the studio and with processing of the video to produce special effects. However such video delays with the studio can be determined with an audio synchronizer by comparing the video before processing with the video after processing and delaying the audio for the difference in time.
Of greater significance are delays caused by differences in transmission paths. Generally the video and audio components may be transmitted over different paths, such as the video component being transmitted via satellite from a transmitter to a receiver while the audio component is transmitted via land lines or microwave repeaters on the earth's surface. The result is that the video component travels a much greater distance than the audio component, resulting in delay differences of several video fields. This delay causes a "lip sync" problem where the audio is heard before the corresponding video occurs. Since the delay difference between the audio and video components did not occur within the studio, there is no reference signal with which to synchronize the two components. Thus there is no way to determine the amount of the delay difference between the two paths.
Therefore what is desired is a method for reliably timing the audio and video components at the ends of the respective transmission paths to bring the two components back into time coincidence.